Butterfly Bush
Buddleia species (formerly Buddleia davidii) (BUDDLEIACEAE)
Planting and Growing Butterfly Bush
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow butterfly bush in the accompanying table’s tabs:
-
- Flowers, foliage, seedpods, and seeds of butterfly bush
- Growing conditions for butterfly bush
- When and where to plant butterfly bush
- How to plant butterfly bush
- How to shape, prune and control growth of butterfly bush
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of butterfly bush
- Landscape uses of butterfly bush
- Pest and disease control for butterfly bush
Growing Butterfly Bush
More than 100 species of wide, willowlike, mostly deciduous shrubs, 4–15 ft. (1.2–4.5 m) tall, with opposite, hairy or feltlike, gray green to deep green, narrow, pointed leaves, 3–5 in. (75–125 mm) long.
Butterfly Bush Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Small, fragrant, lilaclike, orange, pink, purple, white, or yellow flowers, in spring–summer, form arching spikes, to 10 in. (25 cm) long, with dry, berrylike seedpods in autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 5–10; ground hardy, zones 7–10.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to dry, well-drained soil. Fertility: Average–low. 6.5–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full sun to partial shade. Space 3 ft. (90 cm) apart.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep moist; allow soil surface to dry between waterings. Fertilize monthly spring–winter. Deadhead. Prune in spring: to ground in cold-winter climates; one-third in mild-winter climates. Propagate by cuttings, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for backgrounds, borders in arid, cottage, tropical gardens. Attracts bees, butterflies, hummingbirds. Pest and disease resistant.
Common butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii, tends to be very invasive, and is prohibited as a noxious weed in some jurisdictions. Choose and plant only sterile cultivars.